"26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. 27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matt 10:26-28)

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Bought With Blood to Come Before His Presence

Come Before His Presence

He has made us to have a Holy Union with Himself. We are His own children, the work of His hands, created to praise His Name and to be His witnesses among the people of the world. He desires for us to yearn for Him and long for Him in this dry and weary land where there is no water. His Command was for us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

But our hearts and actions were defiling. We pursued vain ambitions and lofty ideals that satisfied the desires of our hearts. For our heart's desire was not for Him. We did not care to know Him. We did not long to sit at His feet. We did not seek His face. We only spent our lives working and seeking for what will soon perish. We became senseless and brutal. At the end of each of our days, our sinful deeds were heaped up to the skies. The haughty words of our mouth paved the way for us to be thrown into the fires. All of our wickedness clouded our minds. We could no longer hear His voice. We could not see the work of His hands. We could not comprehend His Kingdom. We could not discern between what was righteous and what was common.

Therefore the LORD rejected all the people of Israel; He afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until He thrust them from His presence.2 Kings 17

HE REJECTED THOSE WHO REJECTED HIM AND THRUST THEM FROM HIS PRESENCE

And yet many of us have known Him. We have "known Him who is from the beginning" and "His Words live in us". There was a time when we lived in our first love. There were times when we struggled and burned in our war with sin. We cried out to Him and saw His deliverance.

Remember when we cried in brokenness when He afflicted us.

Remember when He brought upon us what we feared and we turned our eyes heavenwards and said "Blessed be the Name of the Lord".

Remember when you fully surrendered your heart to Him and you knew that He was everything.

Remember when the taunts of men assailed you and He was your only support.

Remember the nights of weeping and pleading when He brought a deep sustaining joyful perseverance to you in the morning.

Remember when your physical pain left you perplexed and weary, and He told you that He was enough.

They remembered that God was their Rock,

that God Most High was their Redeemer.Ps 78:35

Remember all the days that we looked back at our words and actions which brought grief to our souls that we had not obeyed our Savior.

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN HE FORGAVE YOU? He reminded us that we are nothing and that He has paid it all. Then you held fast to Him, your Father, and you never wanted to leave Him. You did not want to live unless His Presence went with you.

Remember when He enabled you to persevere under trials and temptations and finally brought you into the light.

Remember when He left you awestruck in the glory of His Presence and overwhelmed with His love for you.

Remember when you had deep fellowship with a brother or sister. You poured out your souls to one another and felt the unity that caused you both to find strength in God as Jonathan did for David.

Remember when you were in an assembly of believers worshiping God together in Spirit and in Truth.

These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.Ps 42:4

WE HAVE KNOWN THE PRESENCE

But we live, feel, think, and act as though we do not know It. We live to please ourselves and we work for what will fade away. We engage ourselves in earthly pleasures and pursuits. In our hearts we feel sorrow, anguish, and despair, as though we had no hope and were still in bondage to the fear of death. We even found earthly deceptive pleasure and strength. We thought about our circumstances from a worldly perspective...we walked by sight and not by faith.

Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.” 2 Tim 2

He is calling us to eat of His Body broken for us and to drink of the new Covenant in His blood poured out for us. There is a Fountain of Life with Him and in this Fountain, we find Life and WE SEE HIM. The way has been opened that we may go to Him freely. Let us leave behind everything each day. Let us cast it aside that we may go freely to Him and behold Him in His glorious Presence.

Though we are truly His sheep, we cannot gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and know the joy of His Presence, unless we have consecrated ourselves and purified our lives. Surely our eternal standing before God is founded upon the righteousness of Christ imparted to us. But if we are to constantly walk in His Presence, we must "rid ourselves of the moral filth within us and humbly accept the Word planted within us that can save us".

12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,”so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. 14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Heb 12

The extent to which we cannot see the Lord is the extent to which we are harboring unholiness, idolatry, and deceitfulness in our hearts. We must go to His fountain and be cleansed of our wickedness.

“On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.

2 “On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. Zech 13

The release and freedom that will be yours as your sins are forgiven EACH DAY will give you the strength and joy to live in Him and to avoid immorality and the temptations of your own heart. There is a purity and innocence that He daily bestows to His children if we will ask Him for forgiveness. Fear not that you have failed today and yesterday. Lay down the burdens of your sin each day. The Bread of His Words will be given to you each day and It will be enough to sustain you from the temptations that assault your soul in a day. These temptations have no hold over you because Christ has been raised from the dead. His Spirit dwells within you and you are His.

6 Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.7 Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for He will freely pardon.Is 55

As He daily purifies you, you will see Him in His glory. He speaks in a "quiet whisper" and in a "burning bush". He acts in high ways that we cannot comprehend. Christ lives to intercede for us and this is His Father's will for Him. As we seek Him, He gives us immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine. We will look back one day and declare that HE HAS DONE IT. Do you have faith that this is true? When the Son of Man returns, will He find you with faith in His cleansing blood and His Resurrection Victory?

Bought With His Blood

In our rejection of the Sovereign Lord from conception, we had refused to belong to Him. We were aliens and foreigners to the Promise. We belonged not to the heavenly Father. And indeed the destiny for all those who did not belong to Him was death.

Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. Eph 2

But in His great love and mercy He has bought us with His blood to be His very own people. With His own blood He has bought the church of God. We have been "bought at a price" and thus we must not "become slaves of men" and we must "honor God with our bodies". When the temptations of our flesh cry out that there is no use in resisting, we must REMEMBER WHOM WE BELONG TO. Those who do not have the Spirit of God can only act as a non-humane creature. But with the Spirit of God in us, we may live in obedience and in nobility. His calling for us is great and high. We are not slaves. We do not have to give in. The tide of our sinful temptations is not too strong. HE IS STRONG. He alone is strong. And we belong to Him. With His very Life He has purchased us as His very own children...as His bride!

And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because You were slain,
and with Your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth.Rev 5:9

The very blood that was used to pay the price for our souls has purified our souls and made atonement for us sin that we may be His own people.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.Titus 2

There is an ideal of loyalty that ought to be in us concerning our Savior. At each moment in our lives, we are faced with a choice. Whose side are we on? Whom do we belong to? Who is our King and Master? How could we succumb to the men of this world or the rulers of this world who have no hold on us and no claim on our soul?

But the Father who is greater than all has given us to Jesus at the cost of Christ's own blood. NO ONE IS ABLE TO SNATCH THEM OUT OF HIS HANDS.

Think of David as a picture of the True King Jesus Christ:David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. 2All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him. I Sam 22

My Father, I am in distress and in debt to You and discontented, and I am clinging to you. You are my Leader, Jesus. You have turned my mourning into songs of joy. You have paid my debt and granted me an inheritance in knowing You. You have satisfied my soul with the richest fare.

About Me

In the Scriptures the Shepherd’s eternal Covenant is a cutting out of His people from all that is devoted to destruction as they approach Him through His flesh and by His blood, a passing through of God’s presence among His people just as the smoking oven and flaming torch passed through the torn pieces of flesh that Abraham offered (Gen 15:12-16), the binding or marriage of two parties, that is, the reconciliation of Christ and His church, and the creation of a new kingdom and people, whose souls are perfected. We were dead in trespasses and sins, just as Abraham fell into a deep sleep and great terror and darkness came upon him, and God has established His Covenant by the strength of His own righteous arm (Eph 2:1, Gen 15:12).